See Me Clearly (Twenty-Twenty)
by eostby
Summary: Wedding jitters aren't the only way to interrupt a perfect day, and it's up to Harry to make the interruption go away. For the "Non-Traditional Wedding" Competition, with prompts Yonder, Anger, and the song Mirrors by Justin Timberlake.


**A/N: This story is a bit AU, with two major changes being executed. First, Voldemort had no Horcruxes, and as such died permanently on Halloween 1981. Second, the Patil twins were sorted into the opposite houses as their canon counterparts (i.e. Padma in Gryffindor and Parvati in Ravenclaw). As always, JK owns the Potterverse.**

Harry Potter sat alone in a room, staring at himself in a mirror. His friends had left him alone to collect his thoughts before the big day, though Harry was fairly sure his thoughts were all where they needed to be at the moment. His focus was entirely on a small space not 20 meters from where he currently sat, where in just over an hour he and his bride-to-be would be sharing their first kiss as husband and wife, but right now, it felt like "way over yonder" was a more apt description of its place in the world. Harry wasn't sure if it was nerves, excitement, or just boredom, but he just wanted to get things moving so that he could start enjoying his married life and not be sitting in front of this mirror.

From outside the small room Harry found himself in, he starting hearing a commotion, growing louder by the second. He got up and moved closer to the door, when he heard a voice shouting at someone presumably standing in front of Harry's door.

"I DON'T CARE THAT IT'S TRADITIONAL TO NOT SEE HIM BEFORE THE WEDDING, HE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS! IF YOU DON'T GET OUT OF MY WAY, RONALD WEASLEY, I WILL HEX YOU AWAY MYSELF! DO NOT TEMPT ME ON THIS!"

A moment later, the door handle turned, and Harry was impacted heavily by a white blur. Stumbling back a few steps, he held his bride-to-be still, though she was shaking with barely controlled anger. A quick glance up to an apologetic Ron, and the future Mr. and Mrs. Potter were left alone. Looking back down to his bride, Harry noticed that the angry shaking has broken down into gentle sobbing.

"Padma," Harry whispered softly, "Padma, what is it? What's wrong?"

Blinking away tears, Padma Patil turned her face to Harry. "It's the bloody press, Harry. Every major news agency in the Magical world is here to capture "The Wedding of the Century", and they're making a bloody ruckus, and it's very annoying, especially since none of them were invited, and they won't take no for an answer, and…"

Harry put a finger firmly on her lips, before quickly replacing his finger with his own lips for a gentle kiss. Seeing Padma visibly calming down, though still weeping slightly, Harry brought her over in front of the mirror he'd been staring into and sat her down in the chair he'd only recently vacated. He knelt in front of her, and made sure he could see her beautiful eyes.

"Pad, tell me what's really wrong. If it was just the press, you could have sent a message over to me, and I would have taken care of it. You know you can't keep a secret from me unless you're really trying to, and honey, right now you're not trying very hard."

A brief grin from Harry got a watery chuckle from Padma, and as she dried her eyes with a conjured handkerchief, she voiced her real concerns for her future husband. "I'm worried, Harry. I'm worried that something will go wrong, and the press will tear me apart, proclaiming me unfit to be the wife of 'The-Boy-Who-Lived', and even though I know you don't give a whit what the press thinks, I'll still be very hurt if it happens. I know you don't enjoy this fame you have, but you're getting used to it, and I don't want to be the one who messes it all up."

As she finished speaking, Padma's head dropped into her hands, and the sobbing returned. Harry held his bride close, trying his best to project reassuring feelings, but he didn't seemed to be doing as well as he had hoped. Frantically looking around the room, his eyes fell on the mirror, and an idea began forming in Harry's mind. Shifting himself around behind the chair Padma was seated in, Harry started rubbing her shoulders, whispering soothing words in her ear. When she had again calmed back down enough to be seated normally, Harry put his plan into action.

"Padma, my love, my only, I want you to look at us in this mirror here. I want you to see us as I see us, OK? No worrying about the press, no worrying about anything else, just look at us and see what I see. Can you do that for me?" A nod from Padma, as she stared into the glass, her eyes still shining with unshed tears. "What I see when I look at us are two brave Gryffindors, ready to fight for what we believe in. I see two brilliant students who gave the famed Hermione Granger a run for her money all throughout school. I see two best friends, who have been so since their first ride to Hogwarts those many years ago. I see two people who have been living their lives together for only a brief time, but are prepared to tie themselves together for a lifetime. I see a future husband and wife who will almost certainly change the world in their time, and leave it in a better place than they found it." Harry moved his hands to Padma's belly and held her close. "I see the mother of my future children, who will take great care to raise them as best she can, and will be making me proud regardless. I see the father of your future children, who will be more than happy to teach them everything they need to know, and maybe a few things they don't." His crooked grin was answered by one from Padma, and her eyes now brimmed with hope instead of tears. "I see the future Mr. and Mrs. Potter, and I couldn't be happier, press be damned. Do you see what I see now, Padma?"

Instead of answering, Padma stood, faced her husband-to-be, and gave him a long, gentle kiss. "I do."


End file.
